God's Gentlemen: A History of the Melanesian Mission, 1849-1942

Originally published in 1978, God’s Gentlemen remains the only detached and detailed historical analysis of the work of the Melanesian Mission, which grew out of the personal vision of George Selwyn, the first bishop of the Church of England in New Zealand. Starting with its New Zealand beginnings and its Norfolk Island years from 1867 to 1920, the book follows the Mission’s shift of headquarters to the Solomon Islands and beyond through the beginning of World War II. Based on a wide range of sources, God’s Gentlemen is the inner history of the slow growth of an important and genuinely Melanesian church.